Environment Systems presented its solution to the CivTech challenge – “How can technology help us identify peatland restoration sites that will optimise costs and benefits?” at the latest CivTech Demo Day on the 8th February in Edinburgh.

Scottish peatland
Peatland which makes up over 20% of Scottish land cover is an important carbon store and home to a range of rare and important wildlife
In good condition, Scotland’s peatlands offer a fantastic natural carbon store and an excellent nature-based solution to the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. The Scottish Government wants to understand where to do peatland restoration in order to maximise all the benefits that derive from it.

While peatlands cover 20% of Scotland, around 80% of them are in poor condition and are emitting greenhouse gases. Restoring them is therefore a key plank of the Scottish Government’s climate change plan and Scotland’s response to the climate emergency.
Our solution, the Peatland Restoration Portal, has been developed in partnership with the Tweed Forum Ltd and Land & Habitats Ltd. Using Environment Systems’ SENCE natural capital evaluation tool, plus satellite data analytics this online tool will provide area-based peatland restoration prioritisation to enable policy makers, land owners, contractors and the finance community to pinpoint areas of peatland requiring restoration helping Scotland to transition to net zero and restore one of its most valuable landscapes and significant carbon store.
SENCE - Peatland Restoration
The data in our portal aligns with the IUCN Peatland Code, the developing standard for peatland restoration, to give peatland investment confidence. There is no other solution available on the market that models the breadth of environmental issues in relation to peatland, whilst at the same time being refreshed with the latest data for monitoring the sites.

​​Our user base in the Scottish Government will provide a strong anchor to the service. In addition to this, we will charge our target customers a monthly subscription to access premium features.

We have committed to maintaining free access for individual landowners. This will provide recurring revenue from organisations who are monetising peatland restoration and by keeping landowner access free we keep the restoration opportunities i.e. the “deal flow”, high.

The Environment Systems presentation can be viewed here.